Commuters Express Divided Opinions on Parking Fare Increase

Commuters have mixed feelings about the Jan. 1 fare increase in long-term parking and monthly permits in the Silver Spring Parking Lot District (PLD).

In order to fund the Montgomery County Parking District Services, long-term parking increased from 50 cents to 60 cents an hour, and the monthly permits, called Parking Convenience Stickers (PCS), increased from $95 to $113.

The parking lot district raised $8.6 million in parking fees and $2.5 million in parking fines in fiscal year 2011, according to the parking budget summary for fiscal year 2013. With the fare increase, the district hopes to generate an additional $350,000 this fiscal year, according to Montgomery County's spokeswoman, Esther Bowring.

There are approximately 5,000 convenience stickers being used in all four Montgomery County parking districts, which include Silver Spring, Bethesda, Montgomery Hills and Wheaton, Bowring said. The stickers, first issued in the 1960s, allow commuters to park long-term in county-metered parking garages, on the street or in monthly-permit reserved spots.

Silver Spring resident Mark Manning commutes to downtown Washington, D.C., for work and has been using a convenience sticker since 2005 when the fee was about $80. Manning says that the parking fee increase has not affected his daily commute; he finds that Silver Spring offers plenty of parking, with more than 12,000 public parking spaces.

“I think that the average person in Silver Spring who would use this facility can probably afford the additional $200 a year,” Manning, who parks in the Bonifant-Dixon garage, said. He added that it costs less to park in Silver Spring than other places, such as Bethesda where the stickers cost $140. The stickers for the Wheaton parking lot district cost $95; the cost is $45 for Montgomery Hills. The stickers for North Bethesda, however, costs as much as Silver Spring’s.

The parking district “needs revenue to carry out the services they do. On the whole, I think that we get a pretty good return for our tax dollars in Montgomery County,” Manning said.

A majority of the revenue generated from parking fees, fines and taxes from property owners within the boundaries of the parking lot district is spent on the operation and maintenance of the parking facilities.

The revenue also goes to three places: the Urban District, whose goal is to keep downtown Silver Spring clean, safe and viable with services such as tree maintenance, sidewalk repairs and summer concerts; the Transportation Management District (TMD), which pays for commuter services such as the Van Go; and the Mass Transit Fund, which pays for a portion of the Ride On services, Bowring said. 

Silver Spring’s parking district plans to set aside $11.3 million on maintenance and operations of the PLD, $1.7 million on the Urban District and more than $832,000 on the TMD this fiscal year, according to the budget summary. One hundred percent of the revenue received from parking fines, approximately $2.5 million, will go to the Mass Transit Fund, according to Bowring.

In addition to sidewalk repairs, Silver Spring resident Cassandra Cherenfant, who also uses a convenience sticker in the Bonifant-Dixon garage, wants to see the revenue spent on education and eliminating the five-cent bag fee. Unlike Manning, she’s not “thrilled” about the increase. “I guess you have to pay for your convenience,” Cherenfant said.

D.C. resident Antoine Fillinger, who works part time in Silver Spring, pays about $6 a day for long-term parking in the Bonifant-Dixon garage. Like Manning, Fillinger acknowledges that there is plenty of parking in Silver Spring, but he finds it much easier to find free parking in the District. “You need to pay almost everywhere in Montgomery County for parking. In D.C., I never put a coin in,” Fillinger said.

Fillinger said money should be spent on increasing the flow of traffic since roads are constantly congested.

“In Silver Spring, I feel stuck all the time. To go from A to B, it’s such a big pain to move,” he said. “You sit at the light and wait forever. The light synchronicity is terrible here. It’s really terrible.”